Aurora Borealis Looks Amazing From Plane Window (VIDEO)

It's been a goal of mine to see the aurora borealis, or the northern lights. I thought that would take a lot of planning to make it happen (travel, hotels, thermoses of hot cocoa, and a lawn chair), but I learned today that you can see nature's most impressive light show from the window of an airplane. Word.

A passenger flying from San Francisco to Paris used a time-lapse camera to capture the aurora borealis from his seat on the AirFrance flight, and I'm so glad he did. His video is stunning.

And A+ to this guy for having the creativity and forethought to execute such a cool project. If I were taking a 13-hour flight, I'd watch two rom-coms, crush up a sleeping pill, and spike my Pinot like a champion, then wake up dry-mouthed and confused in my destination city. Happy to hear that there are artists out there who contribute valuable works to the world for the doofuses like me to enjoy.

The photographer set up his camera to take one photo every two miles, which totaled 2,459 still shots, which he strung together into the video with some pretty terrible techno music that I may or may not have recorded on my Casio keyboard back in 1987. It's a shame he didn't consult me when scoring his amazing video, but I'll let it slide. (For some reason, Coldplay's "Lost" seems like it would be a rad fit. Yeah, I just said "rad fit." Talking about the northern lights brings out the hippie in me! I can't help it.)

The lights are caused by the collision of charged particles that are being pulled by the Earth's magnetic field. It's these types of weather? atmospheric? cool shit? things that happen on our planet that make me feel so small and so excited to learn more about what's happening beyond American Idol and what I'm having for dinner.